Saturday, May 23, 2009

In what was seen as a shocking and unexpected result, Adam Lambert favored to win American Idol by fans and judges lost the title to competitor Kris Allen. Both are undeniably very talented men, but the loss raises questions as to what caused America to have a change of heart?

Many media outlets were focusing on scores of pictures of Lambert in flamboyant outfits, and kissing other males. The right-wing media was also playing up on Lambert's alleged sexuality, while also making the public aware of the "good Christian family man" Kris Allen.

There are those who argue that this is a talent competition and not something for activists on either side to get involved in, I couldn't agree more, except... When a lot of the votes appear to be based on the fact that people disliked Lambert's sexuality and gender expression, it becomes personal for the LGBT community.

Do you think Adam Lambert lost because he was a weaker contestant or because of the still largely queerphobic general population.

12 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I think Lambert lost because he is from California (less fervent Idol watchers, "historically") and because people had already made decisions about him... love or hate. Kris is from the South and was nice, likable, hard to hate. So every people who left the competition, Kris would get more voters (ending with Gokey leaving in the Top 3 meaning a lot of the "Christian" voting block headed right for Kris).

Honestly, the result wasn't shocking. I wish Adam had won because it would be nice to have a gay American Idol. At the same time... all I care about is that the boy has a career and he's going to. Kris was a decent enough singer and musician, but he definitely needed to win Idol in order to create a career quickly.

Part of me wonders if the voting was rigged. I sent in my text votes and didn't get a confirmation text until 8am Wednesday morning. I'm not entirely sure all of my votes (I won't tell you the entire number of votes because it's embarrassing) went through correctly.

If I'm wrong, then I think that all the Christian Danny Gokey fans voted for Kris and that's what put him over the top. I find it incredibly sad that the country is still so closed minded, but it's also not very surprising.

I hate when LGBT people pull the "IT'S BECAUSE I'M GAY" card.It's just so fucking pathetic.Never once in my life have I did that (nor have I ever will). It's just a crutch for people who can't accept that they weren't good enough.

But to answer the question, yes. A number of famous homophobes mentioned how they were planning on voting against Adam and how that was the Christian thing to do and Bill O' Reilly did his big thing about voting against the faggot on Fox News. Plus there were some direct videos afterwards made about how glad they were they knocked out the faggot and a number of apocraphal stories from people noting someone who had voted many many times for Kris without knowing his name.

Not likely the majority of Kris voters, but certainly enough to give him that slight edge. Kris even mentioned this briefly in his acceptance speech. If the guy who won picked up on it happening, then its pretty hard to deny it happened.

On the other hand, it's probably for the best. Kris doesn't seem like an asshole and will at least get an ok career and if Adam doesn't get a contract from someone within the week, I'll eat my hat, and he'll probably have more freedom in regards to it than he would have had through American Idol.

It is unfortunate though, because it was a spite attack, simply to remind queers in general that people will work against them in any venue simply for being or being seen as queer.

If you will recall, when Danny Gokey was voted off, they said there was less than 1M votes between the top two (i.e. Adam and Kris). I think the reason Adam lost is because Danny Gokey fans were more likely to vote for Kris than Adam. And, not because Adam is (likely) gay or because Kris is christian - but because Kris's singing style is more mainstream.

Adam has a beautiful voice and an incredible range - but he is prone to screeching when he gets going, which a lot of people don't like. I think if him being gay was really an issue then he would not have gotten as far as he did.

Honestly I don't think it made much of a difference. Will there have been people that did not vote for him because he's (apparently) gay ? Sure. But many people from the LGBT community that otherwise probably wouldn't have taken part in the vote will have voted for him. So in the end it may not have made that much of a difference.

While I do think this is a talent competition that activists should refrain from making a big deal over, just like I think what Miss California has to say should be a non-issue, .... I don't put it past the Trinity Broadcast Network to line up a bunch of voters to stuff Kris's ballot box.

*To clarify, it's not what Miss Ca said in the pagaent that makes me mad at her, but all the things she did AFTER the pagaent that makes me not like her.